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Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape

Diurnal human activity and domestic dogs in agro-forestry mosaics should theoretically modify the diurnal habitat use patterns of native carnivores, with these effects being scale-dependent. We combined intensive camera trapping data with Bayesian occurrence probability models to evaluate both diurn...

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Autores principales: Moreira-Arce, Dario, Vergara, Pablo M., Boutin, Stan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4569270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26368395
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137854
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author Moreira-Arce, Dario
Vergara, Pablo M.
Boutin, Stan
author_facet Moreira-Arce, Dario
Vergara, Pablo M.
Boutin, Stan
author_sort Moreira-Arce, Dario
collection PubMed
description Diurnal human activity and domestic dogs in agro-forestry mosaics should theoretically modify the diurnal habitat use patterns of native carnivores, with these effects being scale-dependent. We combined intensive camera trapping data with Bayesian occurrence probability models to evaluate both diurnal and nocturnal patterns of space use by carnivores in a mosaic of land-use types in southern Chile. A total of eight carnivores species were recorded, including human-introduced dogs. During the day the most frequently detected species were the culpeo fox and the cougar. Conversely, during the night, the kodkod and chilla fox were the most detected species. The best supported models showed that native carnivores responded differently to landscape attributes and dogs depending on both the time of day as well as the spatial scale of landscape attributes. The positive effect of native forest cover at 250m and 500 m radius buffers was stronger during the night for the Darwin's fox and cougar. Road density at 250m scale negatively affected the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s fox, whereas at 500m scale roads had a stronger negative effect on the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s foxes and cougars. A positive effect of road density on dog occurrence was evidenced during both night and day. Patch size had a positive effect on cougar occurrence during night whereas it affected negatively the occurrence of culpeo foxes and skunks during day. Dog occurrence had a negative effect on Darwin's fox occurrence during day-time and night-time, whereas its negative effect on the occurrence of cougar was evidenced only during day-time. Carnivore occurrences were not influenced by the proximity to a conservation area. Our results provided support for the hypothesis that diurnal changes to carnivore occurrence were associated with human and dog activity. Landscape planning in our study area should be focused in reducing both the levels of diurnal human activity in native forest remnants and the dispersion rates of dogs into these habitats.
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spelling pubmed-45692702015-09-18 Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape Moreira-Arce, Dario Vergara, Pablo M. Boutin, Stan PLoS One Research Article Diurnal human activity and domestic dogs in agro-forestry mosaics should theoretically modify the diurnal habitat use patterns of native carnivores, with these effects being scale-dependent. We combined intensive camera trapping data with Bayesian occurrence probability models to evaluate both diurnal and nocturnal patterns of space use by carnivores in a mosaic of land-use types in southern Chile. A total of eight carnivores species were recorded, including human-introduced dogs. During the day the most frequently detected species were the culpeo fox and the cougar. Conversely, during the night, the kodkod and chilla fox were the most detected species. The best supported models showed that native carnivores responded differently to landscape attributes and dogs depending on both the time of day as well as the spatial scale of landscape attributes. The positive effect of native forest cover at 250m and 500 m radius buffers was stronger during the night for the Darwin's fox and cougar. Road density at 250m scale negatively affected the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s fox, whereas at 500m scale roads had a stronger negative effect on the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s foxes and cougars. A positive effect of road density on dog occurrence was evidenced during both night and day. Patch size had a positive effect on cougar occurrence during night whereas it affected negatively the occurrence of culpeo foxes and skunks during day. Dog occurrence had a negative effect on Darwin's fox occurrence during day-time and night-time, whereas its negative effect on the occurrence of cougar was evidenced only during day-time. Carnivore occurrences were not influenced by the proximity to a conservation area. Our results provided support for the hypothesis that diurnal changes to carnivore occurrence were associated with human and dog activity. Landscape planning in our study area should be focused in reducing both the levels of diurnal human activity in native forest remnants and the dispersion rates of dogs into these habitats. Public Library of Science 2015-09-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4569270/ /pubmed/26368395 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137854 Text en © 2015 Moreira-Arce et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Moreira-Arce, Dario
Vergara, Pablo M.
Boutin, Stan
Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape
title Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape
title_full Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape
title_fullStr Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape
title_full_unstemmed Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape
title_short Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape
title_sort diurnal human activity and introduced species affect occurrence of carnivores in a human-dominated landscape
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4569270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26368395
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137854
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